In just over a month, the global automotive media will return to China en masse for the first time since the pandemic. The 2024 Beijing auto show is the first to be held truly free of Covid restrictions, and therefore will be the first chance since 2019 for many to appreciate the dramatic change that has occurred in China’s car parc - and to the automotive industry in the world’s largest market.
The likes of Ford, Jeep and General Motors, as detailed in a bulletin from Dunne Insights this week, are also suffering, sales having more than halved since 2017 - the trio being labelled as “old fashioned, out of step with the times”, and slow to move to electric cars, according to one executive quoted in the piece. “Ford is losing buckets of money, operating at just 25% of its plant capacity,” read Dunne’s report.